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Computer History Museum
nickynicky9doors writes: "New Scientist has an interview with computer historian Michael Williams. Mr. Williams has undertaken to set up a world class computer museum. My favourite was always the Cray 2 which used artificial human blood plasma as a coolant, but the article talks of the 1965 HoneyWell kitchen computer which was built for the Neiman Marcus department store. At a cost of $10,500 it came with 2 programming manuals and a cookbook. Garbage In was by way of flickering binary switches and Garbage Out was by a row of blinking lights. There's more at www.computerhistory.org."
I always wondered who was willing to pay $75 a week for my plasma. At least I know it was going to a good use!
Karma: Marginal (mostly due to the border around the website)
Museums like these help to illustrate just how complex modern computers truly are.
You get to journey back into time and put yourself in the shoes of researchers who were trying to figure out how to solve the most complex problems of the day, all while having a newfangled electronic appliance the size of a room do all of the work for you.
In times such as ours where computing for the every day person involves little more than pointing, clicking, and writing IMs or emails, we should all learn to appreciate and marvel at computers.
There's no better way to learn about the current information technology field than by studying the past.
I applaud people like Michael Williams.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
My favourite was always the Cray 2 which used artificial human blood plasma as a coolant....
Oh, man, do I even need to take the time to correct this?
The Cray 2, like several successors including the C90 and T90, used liquid fluorocarbon as a coolant. This is true.
To say that liquid fluorocarbon is artificial blood plasma is simply false. There are several commercial products that can be used as blood substitutes-- such as Oxycyte-- but these are oxygen-carrying perfluorocarbon (PFC) emulsions. These products are about as similar to the liquid coolant used in the Cray 2 as scrambled eggs are to mayonnaise.
The coolants used in the various Crays, plus lots of other electronic systems, were all pure perfluorocarbon liquids, like Fluorinert, which is a commercial product produced and sold by 3M. They're good choices for immersion cooling because they're chemically inert. Ironically, most of them (like FC-87, fer instance) have boiling points well below that of water; FC-87's is around 30C. They're useful anyway because they're dense and have specific heats about four times less than water's.
The various artificial blood products, though, are PFC emulsions, in which microscopic droplets of PFC are suspended in a saline solution. These liquids can be used because gases like oxygen and CO2 are highly soluble in PFC. Since the droplets of PFC are about 70 times smaller than red blood cells, it's very easy for them to act like RBCs in the blood stream for gas transfer.
The fact that Cray's are liquid cooled is neat enough without messing it up with misinformation.
Is it possible the public doesn't care? Yes.
Witness "The Computer Museum". Originally Gordon Bell's private collection (as in the VAX guy then Nat'l Science Foundation) it was formalized into "The Digital Computer Museum" - Digital as in DEC.
Later when folks at other companies became leery of donating gifts to their competitor's in-house museum it was spun off into the space built for a transportation museum and became "The Computer Museum". Gordon's wife Gwen took a leadership role, DEC donated lots of support and the place went... nowhere.
It was a good try. Gwen's vision had always been halls of gray boxes through to the movers and shakers of the industry would make pilgrimages, fund through philanthropic impulse, perhaps hold power lunches at a cafe. Instead the bread-and-butter reality of school groups and tourists finally prevailed and more "friendly" exhibits (eg the Walk-Through Computer) were installed as budgets permitted.
However too little too late. The costs of running a museum were high, lots of local computer groups were themselves failing (many of them burning the TCM along the way) and the place never really found its feet. The great hope of the sexy Java-based virtual fish tank teaching all sorts of interesting theories took a few million bucks in donations and produced a pretty but most incomprehensible exhibit that, frankly, tanked the place.
The programs went to Boston's Museum of Science, the collections out to the west coast branch where they were reincarnated as what we see today.
So - do folks care? I doubt it.
Museums cost. Yes I know to folks on the outside they look nice and simple but they're not. What you see on the floor is usually far less then 1/10th of a collection: A collection that requires high-quality (museum-quality) storage if you're to treat it right for the ages. It requires research and documentation and maintenance. It requires insurance and access and continual expansion if it is to keep up. The public facilities themselves need to be maintained and insured and secured and managed. The exhibits must be maintained and updated and replaced on a regular place if you want folks to ever come back. Grants need to be applied for and marketing has to happen to get word out and keep folks coming. Staff needs to be paid for as well as support be given to research programs and visiting scholars. Then there are the daily school groups and tour groups and regular private rentals and public special events etc.
This all takes a lot of money and widespread support, particularly if you're to do a good job and respect the trust your collection represents.
Yes hope springs eternal but we've already been here once. Yes it's Silly Valley and there's a dearth of tourist facilities and lots of folks who did get rich on dotcom and are looking for something they can sponsor. But Boston had it's own computer folks and more students then you can shake a stick at. Six of one, half dozen of the other and it still doesn't add up to enough. I've fond memories of TCM and wish TMHC the best but feel ultimately this sort of project is too big for a stand-alone institution while serving too small a niche; other institutions like the Smithsonian with larger budgets, stronger research programs, their own collections with more facilities & more services would do better.
But hey, the second time is always better.
The author was involved at the setting up of Computer Place at Boston's Museum of Science. Later I became a manager at The Computer Museum. Afterwards I went back to school and from there into industry though I've always kept up with much of The Computer Museum news from a distance. If we met there drop a line.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.